12/02/2023
On this day, 71 years ago, a daring prison break – unprecedented before in World War II-era Europe – happend in Niš. Despite hopeless odds, a desperate escape bid was made was made on 12 February 1942. At least 50 prisoners we're machine-gunned down immediately, while another 100 managed to escape to freedom.
You can learn more about this on our tour to Serbia's third-largest city - Niš: https://www.victortours.com/day_trips/southern-serbia-day-trip-to-nis-from-belgrade
read further about it thanks to Udruženje turističkih vodiča Srbije, Niš, Niš Tour Guides Association
photo credit: Niš Tour Guides Association
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On the barbed wire fence !! 12.02.1942
As the elder of room 12, Branko Bjegović heard during the walk that pits had been dug for more than 80 people. At that time, the detainees could not know that the Germans planned to shoot convicts from the Penitentiary and Jews in Bubanj. Everything indicated that a large-scale shooting of detainees from room number 12 was being prepared. Bjegović passed this on to the other prisoners, and from there many agreed to join the escape group, in order to save themselves, despite the fact that they had not been called before. Another of the organizers of the breakthrough was the chetnik duke Vule Vukašinović, who was brought to the camp with his son Radomir. While Vule was killed during the escape, his son was killed later by the Germans near Kraljevo as an officer-commander in the army of commander Draža Mihailović. However, during the communist rule, the family had to lie that his comrades had killed him.
An unsuccessful attempt to break through the camp fence at the gate itself, as well as the fact that they found themselves under a large gunfire, a famous sentence was heard within the group: "ON THE FENCE" which turned a group of almost 150 people towards the northeast watchtower. The prisoners used the bodies of their dead comrades to make it easier to cross the barbed wire fence. Ou of the 147 inmates, 105 saw freedom and fled the camp. The Germans brought six more, either captured and then shot, or died from wounds during the escape. So, on February 13th, behind the camp building, on the snow, a total of 48 bodies were found, all from room number 12. Their names have been determined. The Jews buried them outside the camp towards place nowdays called Gradsko polje.
